Mitochondrial Diversity in Human Head Louse Populations Across the Americas

M. S. ASCUNCE; J. FANE; G. KASSU; A TOLOZA; M I PICOLLO; A GONZALEZ-OLIVER; D. REED

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

WILEY-LISS, DIV JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2013 vol. 152 p. 118 - 129

0002-9483

Anthropological studies suggest that thegenetic makeup of human populations in the Americasis the result of diverse processes including the initial colonizationof the continent by the first people plus post-1492 European migrations. Because of the recent natureof some of these events, understanding the geographicalorigin of American human diversity is challenging. However,human parasites have faster evolutionary ratesand larger population sizes allowing them to maintaingreater levels of genetic diversity than their hosts. Thus,we can use human parasites to provide insights intosome aspects of human evolution that may be unclearfrom direct evidence. In this study, we analyzed mitochondrialDNA (mtDNA) sequences from 450 head lice